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Maslow Theory of Needs

What are human needs? Why are the priorities of human needs different from each other? Abraham Maslow answered it with the Hierarchy of Human Needs Theory. There are five layers of human needs that are multilevel. It is often described in the form of a pyramid. Maslow grouped the needs into eight types.

Both need security and security. This includes the needs that are protected from something dangerous. This also includes law, stability and order.

Third the need to be loved and loved. This includes the need for friendship and close relationships. Including trust, acceptance, being a member of a family, friends and work group.

Fourth, the need for success and prestige or good reputation. It can also be called the need for self-esteem, including (1) respect for dignity, achievement, expertise, and self-independence (2) the will to get respect and reputation from others.

Fifth, self-actualization or the need to realize the full potential, talents, and aspirations. This is not just realizing the ability from within, but wants to realize his ideas about the outside world such as the idea of ​​society, the search for peak experiences.

Later Maslow added a list of needs again. These needs can also be added to the needs of self-actualization. The added need is the need to know, aesthetically, and transcendently. Cognitive needs are the need to know and understand, seek meaning and predict. Aesthetic needs. That is the need to understand and feel the beauty of art. Transcendent needs are needs that are driven by greater values ​​than oneself, such as mystical experience, experience being part of nature, serving the people, seeking knowledge and religion.

That is Abraham Maslow’s opinion about the hierarchy of needs. The hierarchy of needs does not only answer what human needs are but also answers, why humans at one time were very motivated to meet one particular need, not another. With the hierarchy of needs he explained that when humans are in a state of deprivation, he prioritizes basic needs. When basic needs are met, then he will prioritize the psychological needs of security and affection.

Fulfillment of needs does not have to be 100 percent, but more or less fulfilled. Once a need is more or less fulfilled, the focus of attention will reach a higher level of need.

Maslow classified the five needs into two. The four needs below are called basic needs (the term Maslow Deficiency Needs, D-needs). While self-actualization includes growth needs (growth needs, Being needs, B-needs).

Basic needs, such as drinking water, which if fulfilled, then the motivation for drinking water needs decreases. People look for other needs that have not been fulfilled. If the water needs are not met, then people will be encouraged to achieve it. The longer the basic needs are not met, the stronger the motivation to get those basic needs. The longer a person is in a state without drinks, then he will have a strong urge to get drinking water.

The need for growth, namely self-actualization, has a different character. When the need for growth is satisfied, motivation does not decrease but instead increases. Self-actualization is the desire to be self-full of its own abilities, to be anything according to its ability. Maslow found this motivation for self-actualization to emerge after the basic needs were sufficient. Basic needs start from physiology, security, love, self-esteem.

If basic needs are not met, for example someone does not have a job, he will most likely prioritize those basic needs without regard to the needs of self-actualization. He will delay his taste for art, his dreams for society, the development of his talents.

In addition, according to Maslow, the emergence of that need could rise and fall in the pyramid. That is, it can happen at a time, someone is more oriented to self-actualization, then because of changes in circumstances, re-prioritize to basic needs. The factors that influence this are the development of the external situation and the uniqueness of individuals. In 1987, Maslow improved the hierarchy of needs. The hierarchical sequences may differ from one person to another. Some prioritize self-esteem compared to love. Some prioritize love above self-esteem.